


you knew the game and played it

by sllux



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Dream Bubbles (Homestuck), M/M, Not Canon Compliant, Post-Canon, Post-Game, Post-Sburb/Sgrub, Quadrant Vacillation, Sollux Captor Centric, and they were roommates (oh my god they were roommates)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-06
Updated: 2021-01-06
Packaged: 2021-03-16 13:53:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 867
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28583052
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sllux/pseuds/sllux
Summary: sollux was alone, until he wasn't.
Relationships: Eridan Ampora & Sollux Captor, Eridan Ampora/Sollux Captor
Kudos: 43





	you knew the game and played it

There are stars on the ceiling.

Not real ones, of course, though he could probably get someone of their motley crew to pull some into existence for him if he wanted. Maybe if he phrased it as _decorative purposes only_ they'd be able to forget that every star is a sun, and a sun on their Earth would kill them. But he digresses. The stars on his ceiling are the pale green ones, that glow in the dark and have little flecks of glitter. He and Aradia couldn't get the putty to work, so they'd used superglue instead. She'd said something about permanence, and Sollux had said everything and nothing was permanent, and they'd laid on his platform together and stared up at them like the two sad, philosophical sacks of shit they were. And then she'd jabbed him in the side with two fingers and told him that they're adults now, weren't they supposed to leave emo phases behind? And Sollux had grumbled a nonanswer and they'd left it there.

It had been the first time he'd seen her in months, and it had been the same as always and different as always and somehow altogether depressing and uplifting. Most of their time together has always been, though, hasn't it? He tells himself to get up and stop thinking about it, and when he tries to move he remembers why he's staring at the tacky stars in the first place. Sleep paralysis, his old friend. It's less frequent, recently; maybe that has something to do with getting older, or maybe it has something to do with sharing a hive with Eridan. 

Ah, Eridan. The enigma to end enigmas. Sollux wonders how such a simple solution had been so hard to come to and had taken so long to get used to; they'd shared a body, a mind, a soul. What was a hive? It was everything, he muses to himself, feeling the telltale prickle of _something_ crawling up his legs. The horrors his mind tries to conjure while he's at his weakest are nothing on the things he's already done. 

But, Eridan. Back to Eridan. His hivemate? For lack of a clarifying term, yeah. Sollux had spent one too many nights in his self imposed isolation flying across the city to check that he was even still alive, had one too many dreams where the meteor was the end of him or the end of everything was the end of him or the start of everything was the end of him. He'd been fine, every time, but eventually some part of Sollux had told himself to stop being a pussy, and he'd felt like someone else as he walked to the door and just. Knocked. Stared at Eridan for a few seconds too long after the door was open, turned around to leave without saying anything. His wrist had been grabbed and hastily released, and when he accepted the invitation for coffee his words felt too big for his own mouth. He said he wanted to talk about things, even though he didn't, even though the last thing he wanted was to think about the horrors they'd all been through and about the things he and Eridan had been privy to in each other's heads. 

Sollux wondered if Eridan even remembered their time as a sprite, or if that was a side effect of his doomed timeline awareness. He never had the guts to ask, and the question hung between them precariously. He wondered if Eridan knew Sollux was still holding back after promising not to.

So, they were hivemates (oh my Skaia, they were hivemates). Sollux speaking to Eridan seemed to have had people crawling from the woodwork, after months of not hearing from him, and demanding answers he didn't have. Demanding a reintroduction to society he didn't think he deserved. Aradia had invited herself over, hence the glow in the dark stars, hence Sollux's night terrors and sleep paralysis that had been in a lull since Eridan's shockingly soothing presence had made itself known in Sollux's hive, from the two toothbrushes in the bathroom to the shared movie collection to the takeout boxes of foods Sollux couldn't be paid to touch in the fridge.

Their Incidents, as Sollux referred to them in his head, were frequent but unspoken. A brush of hands, an absent kiss to a shoulder, a pair of legs entwined as they reclined on a couch and watched some reality program. Sollux didn't try to classify them, and Eridan didn't typically try to make him, and everything was good. Was fine. Aside from the whole "reintroduction to society" thing that he wasn't vibing with so hard.

It's a knock at his block door that has him jerking up in bed, the shadows across his body dissipating and his pusher pounding so hard he can hardly hear anything else. His fingers spark, and he tries to clear his throat, fails miserably. "Come in," he rasps finally, not quite sure as to how loud it is. He uses his psi to check the door and unlock it, but it's not like he ever uses it.

He trusts Eridan, and isn't that the worst?

**Author's Note:**

> hmmmm i'm working on some more tskkg stuff but found this from december and wanted to post it. the premise is that when earth c was created, sollux made his own dreambubble without realizing it where he could be alone. eridan wandered in, and they both have to deal with what's between them.
> 
> don't hmu about homestuck but hmu @fukurodaniz on twit if you like my other work!!


End file.
